Old Pike

Old Pike was a five-man rock & roll band from Bloomington, IN, heavily influenced by Bruce Springsteen (most obviously apparent in frontman Tim Jones phrasing and stage presence), fellow Hoosier John Mellencamp, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Nick Drake, and Jeff Buckley. Memorable, anthem-like choruses, sentimental wordplay, murmuring organ, and a steady backbeat propelled the band's somewhat alternative country take on rock music until they disbanded in the year 2000. Old Pike's beginning can be traced back to a chance meeting between singer/guitarist/songwriter Tim Jones and guitarist/songwriter Carl Broemel (they were introduced by future Old Pike bassist Jason Brammer) while the pair were still in high school. They formed a band together, called Planet Earth, quickly amassing a large, youthful following in the Indianapolis area and opening shows for their friends in the band Split Lip. Planet Earth disbanded in 1995, with Broemel and Jones next uniting as an outfit called Pony Boy while Broemel also played in the band Neena Foundry. Neena Foundry drummer Eric Hopper and Brammer joined forces with Jones and Broemel and Old Pike materialized in the fall of 1995. They recorded a demo cassette, called The Night I Spent, with their friend Mike Flynn of the Bloomington, IN-based band Showermast, playing piano and keyboards on two tracks. They also started performing on Monday nights at the local Outback bar. Flynn started appearing at more and more shows, and eventually on the band's half of a split EP with Chamberlain (formerly known as Split Lip) which surfaced on Toledo, OH's Doghouse Records. He soon joined the band full-time, and in the summer of 1996 Old Pike began traveling often to New York City to showcase for major-label recording companies. Around...